Blood Pact

Chapter 2

They got a new rental car and headed east. Kara waited an entire hour before she had Torres pull off to the side of the state hiway. No interstates today. She walked around to the front of the car and made a call on her cellphone while she sat on the hood. Torres kept an eye on the rearview mirror and another on the road in front of them. He wasn't entirely convinced they were out of the woods, even if it was daylight.

Kara dialed a number and didn't have to wait but for one ring. "Etienne. Tell me you know what happened in El Centro."

"I know what didn't happen," he said. "There is no answer from Jarrison and the boardmembers are getting nervous about it."

"Someone crashed the party. I don't know who they were, but they were a lot unfriendly." Kara skipped details . It still sounded too crazy.

"I'll have a security team on site within the hour," he told her.

"He insinuated Jase Jarrison was no longer among the living." Kara had known Jase several years. "Find out, let me know. I'd like to know if it's safe for me to stay in California or not."

"Where are you now?"

"Close enough to the border." She didn't say what border.

"I'll call you."

Kara hung up, and sat there, contemplating. After something went sour, she would usually lie low for a few weeks. The company took care of most problems pretty fast.

"Let's roll," Torres called to her. "There's a motel about three miles up the road." When she got in the car, he didn't ask about the call. She was the brains, he was the brawn, and he figured she'd tell him what was important enough to repeat.

Kara examined her face in the badly-lit bathroom of the motel room and grimaced. It was purple and black, swollen and just ugly all along her left cheekbone. Her jaw ached. Torres leaned in the door and offered her a can of beer. She held it gingerly to her face, hoping the cold would help.

"Everyone that sees us will know for a fact I did that to you," he pointed out.

"Fuck them and their rasict attitudes. If anyone says it to me, I'll give them something to talk about."

"Drinking it would help more," Torres told her, meaning the beer. "Come eat some of this pizza. I don't need to get fat."

"Neither do I," Kara pointed out, following him to the couch.

He snorted sarcasm and offered her a slice of pizza, extra cheese with jalapenos.

"Not that I've been running around all night half-naked or anything," Kara mused, annoyed she'd ruined a perfectly good shirt. She packed light, so she'd be short until she found a mall or bummed one off of Torres, and his shirts just weren't going to fit her. She was lost in the jacket.

"I didn't mind," he told her, winking.

Kara rolled her eyes and put on a tee shirt, not bothering to go back in the bathroom. If he wanted to look, he had plenty of opportunity earlier.

"Eat," he told her.

"I love Mexican food," Kara said as she picked off a pepper and ate it.

"Me too," Torres said, sounding totally serious.

She looked at him and laughed. "That's like me saying I like Italian food."

"I like Italian food," he said.

Kara sat next to him . "Seriously, I'm almost too tired to eat." She nibbled at the slice and decided it was worth staying awake for. It had been nearly twenty-four hours since she had eaten and she didn't realize how hungry she was until she tasted the pizza.

"This isn't as nice as the hotels you pick," he noted.

"Right now, I could sleep in the car. Or in a ditch, or a . . . wheelbarrow."

"A wheelbarrow? You do need sleep." He knew he did.

"I could curl up in it and use my arm as a pillow and 'BOOM', asleep." She was definately getting loopy from fatigue. "Eat your pizza," he decided.

"These peppers aren't very hot." She chewed thoughtfully. "Joey, why don't you ever hit on me?"

"We were talking about food." He wanted to talk about vampires. "Besides, I work for you."

"You work with me." Kara tucked her feet under her and watched him channel surf on the tv. "And I wouldn't be insulted or upset."

He glanced over at her. "What in the hell would a woman like you want with someone like me?" Torres had rented the dingy car in his name and picked a less-than-nice hotel on purpose. If someone were looking for them, they would likely know Kara's habits. This would buy them a little time since it would take them longer to be tracked.

Kara huffed. "Oh, please," she rolled her eyes. They usually had adjoining rooms, and she knew he brought girls to his room some nights. And some nights, she was a little jealous. "You don't seriously think I'd go for the pretty-boy type. Or the yuppies. Way too boring."

"That crazy fucking Italian you see is a pretty boy." He had heard them in her room some nights, too.

"He's Sicilian, and yea, he's crazy. He lives in Mexico because he can't live in the States. I don't date him because of how he looks." She wasn't really sure why she hung out with him, other than the fact he was unpredictable. He kept her guessing, and he was never, never boring.

"You play dangerous games. Prison time on the other side of the border isn't fun. You'd be some guards' breakfast and dinner." Torres knew these things for a fact.

"I've always thought you were hot. It's all in the attitude. I like dangerous." Kara moved closer to him. "And I don't think I'd get bored." She contemplated it a few moments. "If you change your mind."

"You'll be the second person to know." He was uncomfortable, but only because it would be very easy to let his libido take over. He had made a point not to think of her as a female, and that was difficult. She was about to get more dangeous than she could imagine.

Kara sat back to eat, and it hurt to move.

"See if you're still serious in a few days, when someone didn't just try to kill you," he told her. He knew fear could make people do things they normally wouldn't. Fear and fatigue.

"Vampires?" she asked finally.

"Vampires. We'll talk about it when I think we're safe." He wasn't good at dealing with hysterics, and she might just go there.

"Fine." She nodded. "There's only one bed in here."

He rolled up a sleeve. "I'll arm-wrestle you for it."

"So much for chivalry," Kara said.

~~~~~~